By Will Davies 

When it comes to Formula One races, Sebastian Vettel and his InfinitiRed Bull Racing team have owned the Singapore Grand Prix. This year, however, things are different.

Going into this weekend's night race in Singapore, the four-time world champion is adrift in sixth place in the drivers' championship, while Red Bull is second in the constructors' table, on 272 points and far behind Mercedes, which has 454.

This is unfamiliar territory. Last season, Vettel and Red Bull were unstoppable, winning 13 of 19 races, including nine in a row as the 26-year-old German romped to his fourth consecutive world title. New rules, including for smaller engines, have put Vettel's 2014 campaign into such a spin that Red Bull's best hope now lies with its other driver Daniel Ricciardo, who is two years younger than Vettel but 60 points ahead of him in the championship in third place.

Red Bull's team principal Christian Horner told The Wall Street Journal that the Singapore Grand Prix, staged at night on a street circuit since 2008, provides one of the best opportunities of the season for a return to the top of the podium, somewhere Vettel hasn't been in 2014.

"Sebastian has set an exceptionally high standard for himself over the last four years and with the new powertrains, a less competitive package and a frustrating number of technical issues he's found it hard to reach those heights this year," Horner said. "Everything is in place for him to start winning races again. He remains one of the most skilled, intelligent and driven individuals I have ever worked with."

Horner added that Ricciardo, who has 166 points, faces an uphill battle to contend for the 2014 title. Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton are first and second in the drivers' standings, on 238 and 216 points, respectively.

"Daniel has surpassed all expectations this year. The very fact that we're talking about him as a championship contender at this stage of the season," he said. "Daniel has put a marker down with his performances and should be considered a championship contender for years to come."

Since it began six years ago, the Singapore Grand Prix has become an eye-catching date on the region's calendar, with extra stardust landing with performances by the likes of Rihanna, Katy Perry and even the Proclaimers. This year, the musical acts include Ziggy Marley and the Pet Shop Boys. The weather forecast for the weekend is thunder and lightning.

Practice rounds begin Friday evening, qualifying starts at 9 p.m. local time Saturday and the race begins 8 p.m. Sunday. During practice, teams tinker with their cars, which are adapted to suit the different conditions of every race. For Red Bull, this means working closely with its operations room back in the U.K., where engineers monitor the car, as well as those of rival teams.

Formula One has become increasingly reliant on data. With the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile ruling that only 60 members of a team can attend a race, a lot of important analysis is done far away from the track. While Vettel and Ricciardo race around Singapore's streets this weekend, they will be fed tidbits of information originating from Red Bull's operation room in the English town of Milton Keynes.

For this, Red Bull has a partnership with AT&T, which installs networks at every race. In March, the companies said an expanded agreement would see AT&T this year providing communications two-and-a-half times faster than last season. "The network will play a crucial part in how we develop the car; gathering data, learning from it and adapting will ultimately determine our season," Horner said at the time.

Other teams have similar relationships with telecom companies.

Alan Peasland, Red Bull's head of technical partnerships, said the car for the Singapore Grand Prix would be radically different to the one at the most recent race, in Italy on Sept. 7, with different front and rear wings and altered bodywork to tailor the vehicle to the track.

"Car development is always a compromise for every race track...over the course of a season you never really get there with the perfect car," he said Monday. "The challenge for every F1 team is to try to get to the optimum car earlier in the season than the competition...it is a case of tying in the real car performance to the data from all of your simulation and analysis at the factory," he added.

With Mercedes so far ahead with just five races to go after Singapore, Red Bull's challenge for a fifth-consecutive title is in the dust. Horner said Red Bull and Renault aren't satisfied with the power unit's performance this season, but the two are committed to continuing their collaboration.

"Based on what we've seen this season we should be well equipped for Singapore, it's a track which plays to our strengths as it demands more of the cars' aerodynamics and less straight line speed," he said. "Whether this will be enough to put us in contention with a very strong Mercedes package remains to be seen, but we're looking forward to what we hope will be a more competitive weekend for us."

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